How To Deal With Tanking Teams

As the NBA regular season begins to wind down, daily fantasy managers may find themselves in a bit of a bind when it comes to teams that are ‘tanking’.

As we have covered previously, some teams will intentionally lose games to increase their chances of snagging a top pick in the NBA draft lottery. For teams such as the Brooklyn Nets or the Sacramento Kings, there is virtually no chance of qualifying for the NBA Playoffs.

With this being said, these teams are very hard to diagnose in sports-betting, let alone daily fantasy basketball. However, there are a few tips and insights that we can share to ensure that players are not left with the hands tied selecting personnel from these franchises.

Fade Players On Tanking Teams

Believe it or not this is actually a safe practice.

By staying clear of each and every player on these various teams, you can be assured you won’t be subjected to an underwhelming performance on any given night. As stated previously, points are everything in the deepest and most competitive tournament formats. Even a tenth of a point can separate you from ‘greening up’ and finishing out of the money.

The last thing any daily fantasy basketball manager should do is invest their faith in a player or team that has already given up on their season. Fading these players is a great tactic to help any manager reduce their selection pool down the back-stretch of the regular season.

Target Players Facing Tanking Teams

These players are actually in line for a big night at the office.

Tanking as stated is when a team gives a concerted effort to do everything they can to lose. They don’t do it intentionally but on the same token they do not expect to win nor do they really even want to win. With this being said, players on teams that are facing these clubs are likely to have enhanced output, unless they themselves are on another team that is tanking.

If this is a team fighting for a playoff berth in particular, any player on teams in this situation could yield tremendous upside and offer exceptional value.

Avoid Blue-Chip Talent Facing Tanking Teams

On the same token, we do advise managers to beware any prolific or ‘blue-chip’ players facing these teams.

First, you are likely to pay a premium to acquire the services of said player and secondly, much of the consensus will likely be in on said player.

Two things occur when this happens

The player performs as anticipated and you are unable to separate yourself from the pack due high ownership ratings

The player could have an off-night and crush your efforts out of the gate as you allocated a substantial proportion of your salary budget to acquiring his services.

Either way, selecting an elite player such as LeBron James or Stephen Curry against a tanking team could lead to disaster.